Alex Jones will team up with Jason Manford on The One Show, replacing Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley. Photograph: BBC/PA

The BBC have chosen a relatively unknown Welsh presenter to replace Christine Bleakley on its evening magazine programme The One Show.

Alex Jones, a 32-year-old from Cardiff, will team up with Jason Manford as the BBC tries to create a presenting team without spending a huge amount on salaries. The pair will present the show, which regularly attracts audiences of 5m on BBC1, from Mondays to Thursdays from 16 August.

Chris Evans will present the show on Fridays from 20 August. The decision to employ Evans was reported to be a factor in former host Adrian Chiles's move to ITV. Bleakley also left for ITV, where she will be reunited with Chiles on Daybreak, the channel's new-look breakfast show.

Jones has spent a decade on Welsh TV but is largely unheard of outside Wales. She was raised in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, where she attended a Welsh-speaking school and trained as a ballet dancer before studying theatre, film and TV at Aberystwyth University. She took her finals in the Spanish holiday resort of Magaluf, where she took part in a Sky One programme called Prickly Heat.

After graduating, Jones worked as a TV researcher. She was sacked twice before a production company asked her to go in front of the cameras. She once told an interviewer: "I was really forgetful and dippy and I think it was too much responsibility for a 21-year-old girl."

Jones has previously presented programmes including travel series Tocyn and Chwa, a Welsh-language extreme sports series. She also co-hosted coverage of this year's Six Nations rugby championships with former Welsh player and commentator Jonathan Davies.

She said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to bits to be joining The One Show. I watch it at home every night on my sofa and can't believe I'm now swapping it for The One Show sofa! It is the break I have only ever dreamed of and can't believe I'm getting to work with Jason Manford, who I think is just fantastic – it is the icing on the cake."

The BBC's daytime controller, Liam Keelan, said: "I'm delighted to welcome Alex to The One Show team. Her screen test with Jason was outstanding and from that moment we knew she was the one."

Jones's salary has not been disclosed but it will be far less than the lucrative package Bleakley was offered by executives at the corporation to stay at the BBC. They lost patience after Bleakley said she was "torn" between the two broadcasters and withdrew a new contract offer, thought to be worth up to £450,000. The proposed deal was criticised by MPs, who said it was far too generous.

The BBC is under intense pressure from the government to publish the amount it pays its stars. Ministers believe greater transparency will lead to lower pay deals for top talent.

There may be a worrying portent for BBC executives, who have lost many presenters to ITV over the years. Jones once told Redhanded magazine her dream job would be "to share the This Morning sofa with Philip and Fern".